Creating the Delete Old Data Action in ShipWorks

ShipWorks is installed with Microsoft SQL Express which includes a 10 GB (gigabyte) database limit. In the vast majority of cases this is more than enough database space. However, there may be times when you may wish to remove old data from the ShipWorks database in order to free up some database space.

In version 3.7 and greater of ShipWorks an action is installed automatically for you that assists with keeping the database size to a minimum. If you need to create or recreate this action for any reason, this article will guide you through how to check to see if you already have the action and how to create it.

What does the action do?

a. Schedule the deletion to run at 11PM every evening.

b. If your ShipWorks is configured to send emails it will delete email content older that 180 days. (shipment notifications for example) All of your email history is preserved.

c. If you print your shipping labels to a standard inkjet or laser printer, this action removes saved label images from the database that are older than 180 days. All of your tracking numbers, shipping history and shipping settings are not touched.

d. If you print other documents from ShipWorks such as invoices or packing slips, the print content older than 180 days is deleted. All of your print history is still available to you.

First Things First

This article assumes that you are on version 3.7 of ShipWorks or greater. You can check your version in ShipWorks by going to Help > About ShipWorks.

For this action to run, the PC running the ShipWorks database will need to be powered on and not hibernating or in sleep mode.

The Process

Let's take a look at how to create the Delete Old Data action. We will create it using the default settings.

1. In ShipWorks click on the Manage tab and then click the Actions button.

2. Click on the New Action button.

3. On the Action Editor screen, type a name for your Action into the Name field. For this example, we will name our filter Delete Old Data.

4. Next, let's set the schedule for when the action should run. For this example, we will set the action to run every night at 11PM.

Note: You can schedule the action to run at whatever time you wish. However, we recommend setting the action to run after normal business hours.

4a. Under When the following occurs, click the drop-down menu that says An order is downloaded and select A scheduled time.

4b. Click on the blue text One Time and select Daily.

4c. Set the schedule:

- Start: [current date] 11:00 pm

- End: Never

- Run Every: 1 day(s)

5. Now we need to tell the action what we need it to do for us. Click on the Add Task button and select Delete Old Data from the drop-down menu.

6. Next, let's define exactly what we would like deleted.

6a. Under Delete data older than, enter 180 days.

6b. Great! Now, under Data to delete: check the boxes for:

- Email Content

- Shipping Label Images

- Print job content

Note: Please double check that you did not accidentally check the Orders box. If checked, it will delete orders older than 180 days.

7. Nice. Now let's set the Options. Verify that the both of the following options are checked.

- Stop if deletion takes longer than [ 6 ] hours

- Reclaim disk space (recommended)

8. Your action should now look like the below screenshot. Once it does, click on OK and then on Close.

That's it! You are ready to go. The action will run for the first time tonight at 11 pm.